Big Brother
by wisedomsdaughter
Summary: This story is also in "All You Have To Do Is Believe". A couple of one-shots compiled into one chapter of when Jack was a good brother to his little sister.


**Just a note: Anna is Jack's sister, in my fanfiction.**

"Look at this!" Jack's father held up a wrapped package. The wrapping did not look too appealing, but Jack trusted his father to bring back something good.

The package was brown and about the length of his father's hand, stretched out completely. It was lumpy and uneven, but some kind of sweet smell radiated from it.

"Guess what this is!" His father grinned and shook the package proudly. "My father brought these back for me when I was a young boy, too."

"What is it?" Jack finally asked, tilting his head to inspect all angles of the package.

"Maple syrup cakes!" His father placed the package on the table and undid the knot that held the greasy paper together, pulling the string away from the package triumphantly as the paper unfolded slowly by itself.

Sitting on the paper, greasy so that the cakes wouldn't stick to it, were three large squares of a brownish color.

Jack's eyebrows furrowed together, as he stared at the three odd looking squares.

His father broke off a corner and handed it to him, motioning for him to put it in his mouth. Jack nibbled on a side, breaking into a large grin as he tasted the sweetness.

"I like it!"

His father roared with laughter, offering half a square to his wife, who smiled and leaned backwards in her chair, setting her sewing aside.

"I suppose I could have _some_…" As Jack's parents joked, Jack turned to look at his sister.

She hadn't been given any, because she was so little and often overlooked. Jack looked at his corner of the cake, then to his sister.

"Anna, do you want it?"

"Come out and play, Anna! It's fun outside," Jack laughed, beckoning to his sister inside the house.

"I don't want to!" His little sister complained. "It's cold and wet and I don't want to!"

"Aw, come on, it's just snow, isn't it? What's so bad about snow?"

"It's cold and wet and uncomfortable!" Anna repeated.

"It's fun! Don't be such a stuffy old woman, Anna!"

Anna stuck out her tongue at him and he laughed again, thigh-deep in the freshly fallen snow.

"Mama said you weren't supposed to go outside in the snow!" Anna called to her big brother, who continued to prance around like a snow fairy. "You're going to catch a cold!"

"I'm Jack Frost, I _thrive_ in the snow. And you, stuffy old woman?"

"I'm not a stuffy old woman!" Anna leaped from her perch at the windowsill and grabbed her cloak. She was _not_ a 'stuffy old woman'. She'd show him.

"I'm coming to get you, Jackson!"

Anna sneezed pitifully and shot a glare at Jack through her thick bangs. He shrugged nonchalantly, entirely okay.

"Why am _I_ sick? _You_ should be the one who's sick. Whatever happened to 'the bad one gets bad luck'?"

"I guess _you're _the bad one, then." Jack ruffled his sister's hair playfully and she squirmed away. "That's what you get for being a stuffy old lady."

"I am not a stuffy old lady!"

Jack laughed – when was he _not_ laughing? – and picked up the bowl of soup on her nightstand. "All right, little lady. Drink your soup and you'll be good as new in a day or two."

"It's disgusting," Anna frowned. "It's not fair. I never see _you_ drinking this kind of soup."

"That's because I am _way_ too awesome for sickness to get me. You, on the other hand…"

Anna swatted at her brother's hand, almost spilling the dreaded soup. "Be quiet!"

"Get up already, Jack!" Anna punched her brother's shoulder, but he simply groaned and rolled over.

"It's still so early!" He whined. "Can't we go later?"

"All the good ones will be gone if we go later! Get your lazy butt out of bed or I'm going alone!"

"Alright, alright," Jack rolled out of bed and winced as his bare feet touched the not-yet-thawed ground.

"Hurry up, Jack! You're so slow! Mama's been waiting with your breakfast for _ages_!"

"All right, little lady," he chuckled. "You're starting to sound like Ma."

"Because you're still five years old!" Anna shifted her weight from one foot to another and scowled at her brother. "Hurry _up_!"

"Be patient. It'll do you good when you grow older. You're not gonna attract any boys with that fiery temper of yours."

"And _you're_ never going to attract any girls with that attitude of yours!" Anna retorted.

"Ah, but I have my good looks to attract all the women I need." Jack winked at Anna and she giggled.

"Yeah, right!"

Jack had to walk quickly to keep up with his father.

"…the Christmas dance is something to look forward too. There are many candles, so the entire place seems more magical. Everyone wears their best, and all the pretty girls look even prettier." He winked at Jack. "About time for you to court one of them, don't you think?"

Jack coughed.

Anna and their mother trotted behind them, gossiping about things that Jack couldn't hear.

"Ah! Here we are!" Jack's father straightened his tie and grinned down at his son, looking dashing but extremely uncomfortable in his suit. "It'll be fun."

"No need to look like you're going to a slaughterhouse," Jack's mother said. "Oh, let me straighten your outfit. You look a positive mess."

"Mother!"

"Don't give me that look, Jackson. You look fine now." Jack's mother patted his shoulder as a finish and nodded approvingly. "There. Now you look fantastic."

Anna giggled, tugging at her mother's hand. "And me?"

"You look like my beautiful little girl," Jack's mother smiled warmly. "Your new dress makes you look like _such_ a princess. All the boys will be rushing to your side."

Anna giggled again and pranced to her brother, grasping his hand instead. "Hear that, Jack? All the boys will be rushing to my side."

"All the boys like Snotface and Mudbrain," Jack teased. Anna made a face at him.

"Mama, can we go in now?" Anna begged. "Jack's being mean."

Their parents nodded, and Anna raced to the doors, dragging her brother along with her. Jack helped her yank the wide doors open and she darted into, stopping at the entrance with her mouth agape and eyes huge as she took in the scene.

"Jack, look! It's so pretty!" Anna exclaimed.

"You'll catch flies if you keep your mouth like that," was Jack's witty response. In truth, it _was_ pretty, but his suit was far too uncomfortable for him to appreciate anything nice.

His sister short him a dirty look and darted off, blending in with the crowd so well that pretty soon, he couldn't see her at all.

The rest of the night was torture. For the first few minutes of the party, he stood at the walls and in corners awkwardly while everyone else mingled and had a good time. He was soon noticed by those stubborn girls who seemed hell-bent on making him like them, and for most of the party he was scampering all around the place, trying not to let them find him. Eventually though, they _did _find him, and he spent what seemed like hours making small talk with girls who twirled their hair _way_ too often and talked with voices as high-pitched as mice.

"Hey, Jack," Marie squeaked, twirling her hair.

"Um, hi."

"What are you doing here alone? Didn't you bring a date or something?" Twirl hair.

"No. I came here with my family, actually."

"That's so sweet of you! Say, maybe we could be dates for the rest of this party."

Don't get him wrong, Marie as a perfectly nice girl (almost) and her friends were perfectly nice, too. It was just that he wasn't in the slightest interested in girls like her.

"Uh, I'm going to find my sister. So she doesn't get lost or anything." Using this witty excuse, he escaped, twisting through the crowd.

He finally found his little sister looking quite dejected, sitting in one of the wooden chairs placed at the wall, so that everyone could see who was single and who wasn't perfectly.

"Hey, little lady, what're you doing here alone? I thought the boys would be chasing you by now."

Anna plucked at the hem of her new red dress in forlorn silence. She sighed, and shook her head.

"I guess I'm not pretty enough for the boys to like me," she replied, her words wrapped in the let-down depression of a child.

Just as he was about to open his mouth and comfort her, one of those pretty girls walked up to the pair and laid a tiny hand on his shoulder.

"Hey," she cooed.

"Uh, hi."

"Can I speak with you? In private?"

He was about to protest when his sister looked up at him with big, mournful brown eyes and nudged him. "You should go," she told him, and that was all the girl needed.

She dragged him aside and immediately began smiling brightly, though in his mind she looked like a Cheshire cat.

"So I was wondering if we could dance? I heard that they band is playing a slow song next. Would you be my partner?"

At first, he was tempted to say yes. What had he to lose? And anyway, she _was_ pretty, and his father really wanted him to find a girlfriend in the party – that was the whole reason his father had brought him to the party. But then he looked back at his little sister, head bowed, hair covering her face, and then made up his mind.

"Sorry, no," he replied, flashing a small, apologetic smile. "I've already got a date."

He walked back to his little sister nonchalantly, ignoring the disbelieving stare the girl imprinted on his back.

Anna looked up in confusion, at his large grin and then the girl a few meters away.

"What?" She asked.

Jack made a large, dramatic bow and offered her his hand, which she took.

"May I have this dance? I heard they're playing a slow song next."

Anna laughed; she had the best big brother ever.

Anna stormed into the little thatched home, fists balled and face contorted with fury.

She passed her brother, who had been, up until then, reading a book peacefully and quietly. But as she passed, he looked up, and set his book aside.

"Woah, little lady, bad day?"

She ignored him, instead dropping herself down on her straw mattress and glaring at the wall.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No!" She burst out, not being able to keep silent any longer. "It's not you, it's those stupid Gebsen twins!"

Jack cocked his head to one side, his face showing confusion but his eyes sparkling with amusement.

"But they annoy us all the time. Why is this any different?"

Anna scowled at him, gripping the straw in fistfuls and crushing them.

"It's because they insulted Papa and Mama and you!"

"And why is that such a big deal now? It never seemed to bother you before."

"It's because they said the most awful things about you!" Anna cried. "They said that you would never succeed and that you were a ladies' man and a pussy and that you would die alone and poor because you won't be able to do anything!"

Jack couldn't help it; he laughed. He laughed until his stomach hurt, laughed until he wheezed.

Anna glared at him. "It's not funny!"

"Yes it is!" He chortled. "It's absolutely _hilarious_ that you're so bothered by this!"

Anna stared at him, the image of perplexity.

"Who cares what they say about us? They know nothing about me! Who know whether or not I'll succeed in life? Maybe I'll grow old and die poor, like the twins said. Maybe I'll move somewhere else to live and they'll never see me again. I dunno. But you shouldn't take these things to heart."

The next time Anna saw the Gebsen twins, she carried a basket and was returning home from the bakery, holding a bunch of wildflower in her hands to give to Jack.

"Are those for your brother?" Gebsen 1 snickered. "Giving stupid flowers to a stupid boy who won't grow up."

"Grow up," Anna said flatly. "You know nothing about my brother." With that, she flounced home, where her brother congratulated her and ruffled her hair.

** I'm writing and posting this illegally. If my parents knew I was doing this, they'd kill me. I have a huge math test tomorrow, and it's 10:26, so I should be in bed.I DID THIS FOR YOU GUYS.**


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